20-year-old charged in Georgia school shooting DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — A gunman opened fire with an assault rifle Tuesday at officers who shot back at an Atlanta-area elementary school, a police chief said, with dramatic overhead television footage capturing the young students racing out of the building, being escorted by teachers and police to safety. No one was injured. Just a week into the new school year, more than 800 students in pre-kindergarten to fifth grade were evacuated from Ronald ...

1 arrested in stabbingA man involved in an altercation that resulted in a stabbing is in custody at the Pope County Detention Center. James Allen, 27, appeared in felony bond hearings Monday on suspicion of first-degree battery. An officer with the Pope County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) testified officers responded Friday to a disturbance on Bradley Cove Road where a male victim had been stabbed. Three suspects were identified, including Allen. On Saturday, Allen was ...

Ga. man faces trial in killing of baby in stroller BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — It was a tiny bullet that took the short life of Antonio Santiago. He had learned to walk, but not yet talk, when he was killed March 21, six weeks after his first birthday. He was strapped in his stroller, out for a walk with his mother a few blocks from their apartment near the Georgia coast, when someone shot the boy between the eyes with a .22-caliber bullet the size of a garden pea. The teenager charged as the shoote...

5 decades later, some JFK probe files still sealed Five decades after President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot and long after official inquiries ended, thousands of pages of investigative documents remain withheld from public view. The contents of these files are partially known — and intriguing — and conspiracy buffs are not the only ones seeking to open them for a closer look. Some serious researchers believe the off-limits files could shed valuable new light on nagging mysteries of the as...

Ind. team leads fight against child pornography INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — In a cluttered office cubicle in a nondescript building on Indianapolis’ derelict east side, a man with rolled-up shirt sleeves scans email attachments of videos that depict startlingly young children being sexually tormented in ways that can make even federal judges weep. Detective Kurt Spivey is trying to find the people who record or collect such images. He has 30 days to locate as many as he can. After that, the trail c...

Bulger jury duty mix of tension, boredom, fear BOSTON (AP) — They started out as 18 strangers seated in a jury box, stunned they’d been chosen to decide a case the government waited nearly two decades to try while the suspect was on the lam. Two months later, some were shaking as they stood in the jury box and heard their verdict read convicting Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger in 11 slayings. Three jurors in interviews with The Associated Press said the weeks from start to finish wer...

3 escape from Faulkner County jail in Conway CONWAY (AP) — Faulkner County authorities were searching Saturday for three inmates who escaped form the county jail. Sheriff Andy Shock told reporters Jonathan Jackson, 27, Joel Vermillion Jr., 27, and Stacy Ray Wilson, 41, escaped shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday through a fence in the jail’s recreation yard. Shock said the three then stole a car from a business near the jail and fled. The sheriff’s office website showed Wilson was being held o...

Former Faulkner Co. sheriff’s candidate sentenced LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A former Republican candidate for sheriff in Faulkner County has been sentenced to one month in federal prison for transferring a false birth certificate as part of an effort to discredit another GOP candidate for sheriff. U.S. Attorney Christopher Thyer says 47-year-old Harold Allen Smith of Greenbrier was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty in April. Smith pleaded guilty to creating a false birth certificate showing tha...

Bond Hearing (Aug. 17, 2013(The following person appeared during felony bond hearings Friday at the Pope County Detention Center. His anticipated charges and bond amount are listed. He is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 23. William C. Lewis, 32, felon in possession of a firearm — $30,000. • Lewis was arrested Thursday after a London Police Department officer saw a vehicle lose control on U.S. Highway 64 and run off the side of the road. The driver of the vehicle was a...

New NSA revelations stir congressional concern WASHINGTON (AP) — New revelations from leaker Edward Snowden that the National Security Agency has overstepped its authority thousands of times since 2008 are stirring renewed calls on Capitol Hill for serious changes to NSA spy programs, undermining White House hopes that President Barack Obama had quieted the controversy with his assurances of oversight. An internal audit provided by Snowden to The Washington Post shows the agency has repeat...

Ethics panel fines senator $8K for violations LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A Democratic state senator from east Arkansas was fined $8,000 and reprimanded by an ethics panel on Friday after it found that he spent thousands of dollars in campaign funds on women’s clothing, a home theater and other personal items last year. The Arkansas Ethics commission on Friday unanimously voted to fine Democratic Sen. Paul Bookout of Jonesboro $2,000 each for four violations of state law over the spending by his r...

’Bucket List Bandit’ gets 11 years sentence in Pa. PITTSBURGH (AP) — A bank robber nicknamed the “Bucket List Bandit” after allegedly telling a Utah teller he had just four months to live was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in federal prison for a string of heists spanning 10 states. Michael Eugene Brewster’s public defender told the federal judge who handed down the sentence that a medical evaluation found his client didn’t have cancer or any other terminal illness. Brewster’s case made headli...

City wants police-car shooting suit dismissed LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Lawyers for a northeast Arkansas city on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from the mother of a young man who authorities say fatally shot himself while handcuffed in the backseat of a police car. Chavis Carter’s mother, Teresa Rudd, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Jonesboro, its police chief and two officers last month. Jonesboro police have faced criticism about the circumstances surrou...

Pastors to urge expanded background checksNORTH LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A group of Arkansas pastors is calling on U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Mark Pryor to reconsider their opposition to expanded background checks for firearms sales. Six pastors urged Boozman and Pryor at a news conference in North Little Rock to reconsider the measure they opposed in April. Boozman is a first-term Republican who was elected in 2010. Pryor is a two-term Democrat seeking re-election next year. The pastors s...

Authorities seek help finding parole violator LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Authorities are looking for a 50-year-old parole violator who was released from jail last week despite a new Department of Community Correction policy that should have kept him behind bars pending a hearing. The Arkansas Department of Community Correction said Thursday that authorities want the public’s help in finding Tony Perry. The agency’s plea comes after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Tuesday that Perry was rel...

Garland County seeks killer in 1997 double-slaying HOT SPRINGS (AP) — Investigators in Garland County hope new information comes to light that leads to the killers behind a double slaying in 1997. Authorities said Teela Hudson, 17, and her boyfriend, Frank Steven Delaney, 20, were shot dead after Delaney picked up Hudson after her shift at a restaurant. Investigators said it appeared the victims were killed by two people firing different weapons in the Aug. 31, 1997, attack. A gun found in Hot...

Warrants: Mother, boy tortured before friend fled SAN DIEGO (AP) — A family friend tortured and killed a mother and 8-year old son before setting his home on fire and escaping with the mother’s 16-year-old daughter, according to search warrants unsealed Wednesday. The warrants do not describe the torture but say firefighters found the mother’s body in James Lee DiMaggio’s garage near a crowbar and what appeared to be blood next to her head. A dead dog was found under a sleeping bag in the gar...

Manning takes stand, apologizes for hurting US FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Pfc. Bradley Manning took the stand Wednesday at his sentencing hearing in the WikiLeaks case and apologized for hurting his country, pleading with a military judge for a chance to go to college and become a productive citizen. He addressed the court on a day of often emotional testimony from family members about his troubled childhood and from a psychologist who said Manning felt extreme mental pressure in the “hyper-ma...

Experts: Fort Hood victims shot while lying down FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — At least four people killed during a gunman’s rampage at Fort Hood in 2009 were likely shot while lying on the floor inside a building at the Texas military base, experts testified Wednesday during the accused shooter’s trial. Pathologists who conducted several autopsies of the victims described the wounds caused by an FN 5.7 semi-automatic pistol while testifying at the military trial of Maj. Nidal Hasan. He is accused...

State police roll out new low-profile cruisers LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The Arkansas State Police on Wednesday deployed 24 new low-profile vehicles that are designed to blend in with ordinary traffic and allow troopers a better opportunity to witness more traffic violations. Each of the 12 troops in the state gets two of the vehicles, which are Dodge Chargers. The new cars are equipped the same as a conventional patrol car, but come in different colors, do not have the roof-mounted bar light and...